The present invention relates generally to vehicle protection barriers, and more particularly to movable water ballasted vehicle traffic protection barriers for applications such as pedestrian protection, traffic work zone separation, airport runway divisions, and industrial commercial uses.
Water ballasted vehicle traffic protection barriers of the type described herein are known in the prior art. Generally, such barriers are comprised of molded, lightweight plastic, and are hollow, having a fill port for filling them with water to ballast them in place. The barriers are fabricated to be sectional and modular, so that, once placed in a desired location, they can be attached together lengthwise to create a barrier of any desired length.
Prior art water ballasted barriers of this type have a certain utility, but have been plagued with durability problems, and have difficulty meeting current federal highway safety standards, specifically the Federal Highway Administration Standards of Report NCHRP 350. Failure of a barrier to meet these standards excludes the barrier from use on any highway project which is funded in whole or in part by federal highway funds, and thus severely limits that barrier's usefulness. Typically, failures occur because the barrier cannot pass vehicle impact tests required under NCHRP 350 standards. Test level 1 (TL-1) standards requires an 820 kg vehicle to impact the water wall barrier at 50 kilometers per hour (kph) at an impact angle of 20 degrees, and a 2000 kg vehicle to impact the water wall barrier at 50 kph at an impact angle of 25 degrees. Test level 2 (TL-2) standards require an impact velocity of 70 kph, with the same vehicle weights and impact angles as for TL-1 tests. Test level 3 (TL-3) standards require an impact velocity of 100 kph, again with the same vehicle weights and impact angles as for TL-1 and TL-2 tests. To pass these impact tests, the barrier must keep the impact vehicle from penetrating and driving over the water wall, as well as keeping the impact vehicle from rolling over on its side or roof. Additionally, occupant velocity must not exceed 12 m/s, and the ride-down acceleration must not exceed 20 g. What is needed, therefore, is an improved water ballasted protection barrier system which can successfully meet the TL-1, TL-2, and TL-3 test standards described above.